Sayonara Japan

Well, it`s the last of my full days at Taga. I was sad last Wednesday when I made my speech to the teachers in the morning. There will be things I miss about this work. The people and the friendly atmosphere. Everyone working together. Although plenty I won`t miss but I don`t want to think about negatives now because I`m just happy.

My ending here has been good. I feel that I have made enough time for everything and everyone I want to. I have visited everywhere that I wanted to visit. I have said goodbye to all of my schools well. I have (and will say goodbye to all my friends well), I`ve made and given and bought meaningful presents for everyone. So I have no regrets I think.

One thing I have been very touched by is the fact that two of my non-base schools have given me enkais – very enjoyable evenings. Aswell as my being paid for (and enkais are expensive) I was given lovely gifts and flowers as appreciation. I have a feeling that it is not usual to have enkais with non-base schools like this especially with an ALT that has only been here one year as I have– and I have been told that it`s because of me and my personality that Kita and Tokai both wanted to. I am very touched by that – I think they did appreciate me. Sure, I didn`t stay late into the evening working on students club activities. I always left on time. I didn`t really mark much students work. But I did make the extra effort in my own way. In ways that I thought were important. I made friends with the teachers I was teaching with. I always took time to talk with them. And I think they must have appreciated that more than I realized before. To practice their English with a native speaker is a rare opportunity for a busy high school teacher. I was an open personality. I was happy around and about the school. I always smiled at people even if I couldn`t talk to them. I was always open to them. It`s such an easy thing to do – just to be open and friendly to people, but perhaps the other ALTs don`t do it so much. Evan probably didn`t as he found the atmosphere at Taga cold – but I have found it the complete opposite – all you`ve got to do is be friendly.

I`m sure I was appreciated for my lessons too – I did have some good ones I remember. When the good ones worked well it was great – getting all the students up and doing something different. Getting a good compliment from the JTE after a good lesson is great. Getting them all concentrated on an activity is great. And it`s true that when you get a student coming up to you, saying they can`t do it, and you give them a hint, and then they work it out for themselves and you see the realization on their face and you get a really big genuine smile from them – THAT, is a REALLY GREAT FEELING.

I`m pleased with the lessons I gave them. My personality was in them – my love of maps, cultural differences, modern culture, places in the world, UK culture, Japanese culture are all what I am interested in so I designed my lessons by that. And I think they did work well overall. I`m liked by my students so they must have respected me in my lessons – not seen me as horrible, nor as a joke teacher. I`ll miss being in the street meeting them everywhere – being said “harrow Bea-sensei!” to everywhere. It is almost like being a minor celebrity in this town – but it`s nice to be liked.

I was so worried about the big speech in Japanese I had to make to all of the school on that stage with the microphone. I fluffed up the bowing (as predicted). My voice was nervous (as predicted) but it was all worth it because I got a really long and warm round of applause from that giant hall (Yao commented that) and I felt very appreciated. It was a lovely way to end. The Japanese love their formailities - I have resented them, felt frustrated by them. But the appreciation you get from doing them is there. It was the first time the students had heard me speak Japanese I expect, and perhaps they respected me for doing it in Japanese and realizing what a hard thing it was for me to do. They still all wave and say hi to me enthusiastically when I see them so perhaps some are sad to see me go.

I`m sad to go too …. But I don`t want to stay! This year in Japan has been the best year of my life so far. I have learnt so much. I have experienced so much. I have grown so much. I have grown up so much. I`ve got new ideas of how I want to live my life in England to be as fulfilled and healthy as I have in Japan. I have truly widened my horizons and I am REALLY REALLY HAPPY.